What Has CANOPA Been Up To?

In early 2021 our two founders got together through social media after a Facebook post surrounding the lack of transparency specifically wages. This lack of transparency had been brought up before on social media, around campfires and discussed over contracts over the last 75 years, but very little had been done to improve the situation or move the needle forward. CANOPA was born out of the recognition of the need to move from words to action.

CANOPA is a registered Nonprofit – which is both exciting and took a ton of work. We made the decision to go this route to assure that our work is a collective process, sustainable, and allows us to work collaboratively with other organizations interested in seeing positive change in the industry.

In our first year as an organization we accomplished a lot! We got our website up and running, which allowed us to have our memberships go live on February 4. We also were able to put together our board! The board is completely volunteer based , it is composed of folks from all walks of the outdoor industry, current and past; to date they have put in more than 2,000 hours towards CANOPA. Throughout 2021 they accomplished putting together a constitution, formed a strategic plan, taken on a variety of projects, formed partnerships and are working hard towards the long term goals. In September the first Annual General Meeting was held where the board was able to present everything they have been working on.

Throughout the year CANOPA was able to interview and feature Rad Folks who are current leaders in the Outdoor Industry. We also were able to partner with a few students to do takeovers on our social media to learn about their experiences as a student in the outdoor adventure or recreation and leisure programs. All of these can be found on our Instagram account.

Starting in January we started researching and educating ourselves about the Employment Standards Act (ESA) and Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB), we then were able to create and share content on social media. As well we started to present at different universities and colleges across Canada about the ESA and WSIB, and what this means to then as they start their career in the Outdoor Industry. Through this we have been able to partner with Universities and organizations to advance the research and reduce barriers in the Outdoor Industry. In May 2021 we Co-Hosted the Ontario Wilderness Leadership Symposium (OWLS) with the Council of Outdoor Educators of Ontario (COEO) and Project Canoe, Moving from Actions to Words : Anti-Racism, Anti- Colonialism & Anti-Oppression in the Outdoor Profession.

Another big thing CANOPA was able to accomplish was our survey. We were also to create a survey for current and past members of the Outdoor Industry to learn about their experience in the industry. We surveyed just under 400 folks and all of this information can be found in our survey results page.